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Police
Contents Police Organizations In almost any Roleplaying server, an in-character organization exists, usually from inception, to Police a given set of laws: the exact nature of the organization depends highly on the server, but can, in the history of TSRP, be broken down into three sections: Police States, which are usually seen on Nationalistic-setting servers or futurist dystopian settings such as classic 1984 Roleplay or Havoc9's XenonCity, Police Departments, which are the generic, mostly current-time period Police Departments and the most common among 'Strict' roleplaying settings, and the pseudo- or proto- Police, manifesting themselves on most half-baked TSRP servers in imitation of their stricter predecessors. Police Departments In server settings defined as more realist than anything else, beginning with Westminster and heading on through Mecklenburg, Iburg, and the other urban environments home to a solid majority of roleplaying servers in TSRP, Police Deparments are a staple of roleplaying, though they have a reputation for skirting the lines of Roleplay if not properly managed or organized from a server's inception. To begin with, a name is usually forced based on the Map used, the setting of the entire server's roleplay: for instance, Mecklenburg is home usually to the Mecklenburg City Police Department, shortened 'M.C.P.D.' For this reason most maps have, included amongst their features, a Police Department structure with an armory and lockable jail-cells. A hierarchy of power similar to that of an actual Police Department are seen, as well, with some changes. The reliance on plugins exhibited in many Police Departments was often used as a sort of litmus test by more classically-minded roleplayers early on: several systems were developed for the use of Police Departments in HarbuWare's early designs, including 'Tazermod,' 'Jailmod,' and the entmod variant 'Rope.' While cuffing a suspect is generally acceptable, Jailmod teleports a player directly into a jail cell, and while tasers (not the common mistake "Tazer," TASER is actually an acronym -- Thomas A Swift's Electric Rifle) are, in the real world commonly a large part of Police protocol, their overuse has been seen by many as the downfall of much good roleplaying interaction. For instance, armed suspects are now subject to a taser-attack which rends them blind, deaf, and unable to move-- they are then cuffed, and teleported to jail, regardless of whether or not they were actively roleplaying. This skirts the line with Proto-Police work, as defined below, and is a common nuisance even in servers procaliming to be "Strict." X-Factor, under SoupNazi's management as Chief of Police and Terminater's ownership, is a good example of a middle ground between plugin-based gameplay and actual roleplaying. The staple roleplay between Police Officers and criminal enterprise is one of the primary methods through which many roleplay in TSRP, and on one side of the law or another, or both, many veterans got their start. While shootouts are common, real Police Elements such as interrogation, investigation, and even the involvement of corruption can create much more intricate roleplaying scenarios than the simple aspect of "Cops and Robbers," and is what separates true roleplaying from Proto-Police RP. Proto- or Pseudo-Police Servers While it is by no means a definitive litmus test, it was commonly accepted for a time (somewhat forgetfully when taking into account the lax policies of classic RP's early Police Forces) that if a server allowed walk-on Police Force recruits, it would suffer for it in terms of roleplay. Indeed, the seeds of Pseudo-Police roleplaying can be seen in many otherwise solid TSRP servers in the hierarchical structure of their Departments. Most structures under Harbu for a time followed a cookie-cutter template that ran, from lowest rank to highest, "Explorer (alternatively, 'Jail Guard,' or Recruit) -> Officer -> Sergeant -> Captain -> Deputy Chief -> Chief," or some derivation. However, notably, in what is referred to here as a "Pseudo" Police structure, this system is highly bastardized with an emphasis on action. In the worst cases, "S.W.A.T." becomes its own organization (quite nonsensically, given it is, in all real-life cases, a team ON the Police Department), or even a military aspect arises in an otherwise realist Roleplay server, subjugating players to what basically becomes server-sanctioned DM-fests, or a glorified Cops and Robbers roleplay. Ranks, instead of the average template, are often "SWAT Recruit - > SWAT Captain -> SWAT Sniper -> SWAT Heavy Weapons -> SWAT Leader." Often, names that are more nicknames than "Roleplaying-acceptable names" are used, and instead of 'Officer John Mackey," a player may be titled SWAT V1P3R. This makes it easy to distinguish the solid roleplayers from those often pre-pubescent shoot-'em-up types, but often-times the line is blurred. Even the most snobbish of roleplayers skirt the line sometimes, often because of ego. Elitism can, indeed, lead to Pseudo-Police conduct, such as the constant shooting of suspects, even when cuffed, the unrealistic jailhouse executions exhibited by countless servers, and the non-stop TASERing of all suspects, armed, unarmed, guilty or innocent. At this point, it becomes a power-trip instead of an organizational roleplaying standard. Gallery swatprep.jpg|Members of a SWAT team prepare for an operation in Augsburg, June 30th, 2011. swatprep2.jpg|Members of the Lyon Police Department undergo a training session on July 28th, 2011. Rodneyking.jpg|Some police officers intentionally committed acts of police brutality against civilians and suspects. Category:Organizations